John & Anne Wiley

2014/02/04

Up & Down

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 08:05

Today we flew our dear NYC friends out to nearby Santa Cruz Island, and as always it was fun both being with them and visiting our seldom seen park. We got a new view of this one among the numerous rock arches among the sea caves and other natural wonders of this place.

1537 Santa Cruz Arch

1537 Santa Cruz Arch

We got a new view east along the backbone of the island with little Anacapa Island in the distance.

1565 Island Backbone

1565 Island Backbone

After enjoying many new views of this ever-new place we stopped for lunch at the aviation-themed restaurant on Camarillo Airport. Then an enchanted flight home to SBA and a sunset hike down this trail near our place.

1621 Into Art

1621 Into Art

Like the rest of our day, this felt like a journey into art, with conversation bubbling along the trail just as water has bubbled along the rocky stream there on our wet season hikes there.

2014/01/31

Look Out

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 17:30

One of my fav views from SB is up at the Tooth Rock and La Cumbre Peak area.

0953 La Cumbre Peak

0953 La Cumbre Peak

So one of the things we enjoy doing on short local flights, is climbing past the cool abandoned fire lookout atop La Cumbre Peak. On this particular flight we flew east along the ridge past it for the above view, then later coming back west along the ridge we decided to cross to the north for a look at the river. That gave us this different view of the lookout.

1026 La Cumbre Lookout

1026 La Cumbre Lookout

A few minutes later over the Santa Ynez River, we could see a different kind of fire look out. Because we’ve been in extreme drought, the normal river flow for this time of year has dried to this extent of a few isolated stagnant rock pools like these two on opposite sides of the concrete river crossing road.

1030 Dry SY River

1030 Dry SY River

On normal years if the flow is low enough it’s fun to drive slowly through the river. As it is, we’re all instead on the look out for wildfires. Any time there’s smoke around town, locals on Edhat are checking to see if they need to start packing their valuables. Since this flight we’ve had a few sprinkles, and we all hope real rain may follow.

2014/01/29

Water & Rocks

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:55
0781 Duckling Boats

0781 Duckling Boats

To me this looks like a scurrying mother boat followed by three frantic duckling boats as the other boats passively look on. Or they could just be an intricate collection of miniature toy boats. I guess the motor boat is towing the three small sailboats, either back to the marina or around the course so they can practice using the rigging.

Meanwhile, up in our mountains the rocks hold evidence they were once under the water.

0857 Sedimentary Layers

0857 Sedimentary Layers

Water has also apparently carved out holes where the rock is softer, giving it a complex etched look.

0859 Etchings

0859 Etchings

Small streams running down the slope during heavy rains also seem to have carved out a small cave between these rocks.

0969 Carved Cave

0969 Carved Cave

Nearby is another even smaller and shallower opening that still might provide welcome shelter for various animals. Maybe also a hunting ground for snakes. It has a blocky shape, as if carved by humans to place a signal lantern for ships in the Channel.

0969 Blocky Shrine

0969 Blocky Shrine

Our mountains have innumerable interesting rock sculptures carved by water, some like miniature fanciful Monument Valley columns.

0865 Mini Monuments

0865 Mini Monuments

Looking at these sculptures reminds me that time is relative. What seems like solid stone is still fluid as the water that once covered it, if we could view it uplifting and then dissolving over millennia.

2014/01/26

Impressions

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 20:18

I enjoy the impressions images make on me. When I see something that tickles my creative eye, sometimes I pause to wonder why. If I snap a pic of it, usually they don’t fully capture what I saw and sometimes they capture an impression that wasn’t there in the moment.

0729 USS Stearns

0729 USS Stearns

When I saw and snapped this, it was to capture the creative impression from long shadows across the wharf. As a photo the impression that stands out is that Stearn’s Wharf looks like an aircraft carrier full stop in a calm sea of linear ripples. This next one was a much bigger surprise.

0733 Pow!

0733 Pow!

Sure the sail in sunshine above an already sunset sea made an impression, but keep in mind that we’re 1/4 mile away so the scene is vast and there are many other remarkable things to look at. When I cropped the zoom pic, the impression became one of thrilling motion beneath a brilliant balloon suspended in space.

2014/01/25

Over The Hill

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 21:30

How do we know when we’re over the hill? Often it seems when we’re over the hill we just see more mountains to cross.

8092 Over The Hill

8092 Over The Hill

As you can see, the hills here are dry. But still beautiful. Nestled among these hills (they’d be called Mountains back east) are some reservoirs. Just a few miles north of Carp as the Tripp flies, Jameson Lake is showing ever more lake bed as the drought deepens.

0674 Jameson Lake

0674 Jameson Lake

Further west along the Santa Ynez River is Gibraltar Lake, also looking very dry and brown.

0693 Gibraltar Dam

0693 Gibraltar Dam

But just a couple of miles south across the ridge on the Montecito foothills, there are patches of bright green fed by water from three dams on the river.

0714 Redistribution

0714 Redistribution

This sort of contrast is one of many things that make flying here so delightful. In a couple of minutes you can see such different worlds, glimpses of how it looked eons ago, and the dramatic effects of human hand.

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